Brian Bartlett discusses the appeal of musicality, of subtle emotional impact, and of cataloguing oddities in poetry. Finding significance in the minutiae of nature and life is both comforting and important, and is a fine topic for poetry, though the ferocity of wind and sea is always fascinating as well. Poems are not only and always a matter of exclusion, of cutting out, but can be good vehicles for including a great multiplicity of ideas and images and sounds. Both long and short poems have their own distinct types of power and charm.
